5 gum

For my analysis of filming techniques, I am using Wrigley's 5 Gum ad - rain.

In a 47 second clip, there are 28 cuts, so an average of less than a half second per shot. The ad begins with the taps of buttons and a low whirring sound, which builds as clips of an observation deck and various buttons and knobs are pressed and turned, a bass beat starts as a man walks into a raised pool of silver marbles and eventually lies down in them. The beat continues and the marbles begin to roll off the pool and over the man. One of the last cuts is off the man's mesmerized face as he lies in the marbles and listens to the beat. Eventually it clips to a slide that says "That's the spearmint tingle of 5 gum." The lighting of both the clips of the observations deck and the pool is largely dark and mysterious with dim lighting. The technical gizmos juxtaposed with the spare trappings of the room with the pool of marbles offers a sort of contrast of complex and simple, but is consistently a cold, metallic, distant feeling. The serious looks on the observers faces, and slow movements of the man walking into the pool combined with all the fast cuts create a feeling of anticipation and mystery as you are unsure of where the shots will take you next. There are a lot of shots of close ups of hands which creates a sense of proximity without intimacy. The man in the pool is only wearing shorts, so the imagery of skin as an organic substance with the metallic marbles makes you imagine a cool sensation.

The shots are mostly close ups and head/shoulders shots, but there are a couple views of the large auditorium area from far away that give a sense of place to the close ups. Overall, the audience is unsure of what will happen, like the scientists, but the positioning is definitely with the man in the pool. The shots where you can see the faces of the scientists are largely behind glass, whereas you see the hands, body, face of the man in the pool close up and for longer periods of time than the scientists. Overall, you are impressed with the abstractly cool feel of the place created, and you have a tendency to imagine what it would feel like to lie in a pool of metal marbles while listening to bass beats... and that the mindlessness of that might be desirable compared with whatever you might be doing. You probably should get some 5 gum, you are hypnotized and you are going to buy it right now. 5 packs probably.